Severe weather triggered by the ‘Beast from the East’ suppressed growth at Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd (Hial) in the financial year to March.
Many airports were forced to close, with a knock-on effect on flights to destinations including Inverness.
Hial managing director Inglis Lyon said passenger numbers could have been even better than the 7.4% annual increase reported without the impact of the winter storm.
Growth was seen at nine of the organisation’s 11 airports across Scotland.
A total of 1,780,521 passengers used the company’s 11 airports across Scotland in the 12 months to March, an increase of 112,098 year-on-year.
Highlights included a 17.9% growth in numbers at Sumburgh airport, a 9.3% year-on-year increase at Barra, 9.1% at Kirkwall and 8.4% more passengers at Islay.
Inverness airport numbers rose by 46,855 to 875,873 helped by the continuation of flights to Heathrow and Amsterdam Schiphol airport.
Loganair and Swiss are both introducing new routes from Inverness in the coming months to destinations including Bergen and Zurich.
Strong demand for flights from Glasgow to Barra, Islay and Kirkwall saw increased passenger numbers, with Kirkwall attracting 195,982 passengers.
Benbecula and Campbeltown airports achieved 4.5% and 3.7% year-on-year growth respectively.
But passenger numbers dropped by almost 17% at Wick John O’Groats, partly due to a continued reduction in demand from energy sector services to and from Aberdeen,
Dundee suffered a 43.4% slump due to the loss of flights to Amsterdam.
Lyon said: “Overall, the past year has been another of significant growth in passenger figures across the Hial group, this highlights the customer demand for our air services and the continued support and connectivity they provide for communities.”
He added: “We are constantly looking at ways to attract additional business and continue to invest in our airports to further improve services and add new routes.”
The company’s annual results for 2017-18 will be announced later in the year.